Shopping for a wedding dress is a day-long committee meeting but only one person has a vote that matters. (But the entire wedding party agrees my daughter will look spectacular as a June bride.)

It is not possible to watch The West Wing too many times. No, really, it’s not.

Parenthood created the best TV finale ever. Now that it’s on Netflix, I’m thinking of putting it on permanent loop.

It is possible to remodel a bathroom for far less than the $9,258 average cost. Somebody has to be on the low end, and I am pleased to have served that statistical purpose, considering it wasn’t budgeted in the first place.

Termites don’t live in your house. They just eat there. And it is not cheap to buy their dinner. Don’t ask.

A book group is more than a group that talks about books. It is a buoy in deep waters, and after more than a decade with these women I don’t want to do it any other way.

Your family will survive if you have a December when putting up a tree is Simply. Not. Feasible. (See #4 and #5.)

I am chronically over-ambitious about how much I can get done in any given period of time. Okay, that is not new information, but I am trying harder to make reasonable course corrections.

When indescribable tragedy rips open your friend’s heart, yours shatters, too. Over and over and over.

“The Word was made flesh … and we beheld his glory full of grace and truth” are words that keep me going. I need them on Christmas and every day.

What about you? If you scan the last year of your life, what gives you pleasure, where have you struggled, and where is your joy?